Robert Shelton has guided the Fiesta Bowl out of a fairly dark period to once again being the host of a championship game.

Shelton, the executive director of the Fiesta Bowl college football bowl game, helped the Scottsdale group in its bid to host the 2016 College Football Playoff national championship game. The game will be played at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, which also will host a semifinal playoff game in the new four-team format in 2017.

Both games will have big economic and tourism impacts on the Valley. The 2011 Bowl Championship Series title game in Glendale between Oregon and Auburn, for example, had an economic impact of $188 million, according to a report commissioned by the Fiesta Bowl.

The 2016 game will be the eighth national championship game hosted by the Fiesta Bowl. Shelton, the former University of Arizona president, was hired in 2011 after a campaign finance and spending scandal resulted in the firings of former bowl chief John Junker and some other top Fiesta Bowl executives.

Shelton said the bid requirements included host cities coming up with 1,000 volunteers for the games. He said the Fiesta Bowl has an army of 1,500 to 3,000 volunteers, many of them from the business community.

“We have a volunteer base that is second to none,” he said.

As the West Valley is getting another event with plenty of media exposure, the Tempe Tourism Office is changing up its branding campaign.

Stephanie Nowack, president and CEO of the Tempe Tourism Office, has overseen the launch of a new advertising and marketing campaign: “Tempe: Refreshingly Arizona.”

Phoenix marketing firm Davidson & Belluso helped develop the new effort with the Tempe Tourism Office. Nowack said the effort looks to encompass Tempe’s college town atmosphere, Mill Avenue and Tempe Town Lake.

The tourism group also has hired James Tevault as its new sales director.